There's a new biography of Molly Ivins – called Molly Ivins, a Rebel Life by Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith – and it's on my Christmas Wish List. Here in a review I found this reminder of her ability to see politicians for what they are, and make us laugh.

She once wrote of a Republican congressman that 'if his IQ slips any lower, we'll have to water him twice a day.'

Of course this isn't the only instance of her mixing politics and botany. Remember Shrub?